i would think it is smart move by Toyota not just govt.... it also shows who is most commited player on the market, despite millions of PR's issued by other manufacturers.
No ... Texaco bought GM's interest in Ovonics, then Chevron bought Texaco, then chevron sold it to Samsung (an actual battery manufacturer), I believe, on Jul 14, 2009. What's funny to me is that PC had numerous posts just a few months back quoting Toyota, head honchos who said how Toyota had done years of research on both lithium as well as nickel metal battery chemestries. They had concluded that nickel is better. Now here we are with Toyota buying up lithium. Is that what you call making a "poker face" ? .
My understanding is, in the current situation, the NiMH ls low cost, technology proven and reliable for HV, therefore Toyota continues to use the NiMH for a while. OTOH, the Li-ion is light weight and high capacity, therefore they almost "must to use" it on the PHV and the EV. When the Li-ion becomes low cost and reliable, they'll use it on the HV too. Ken@Japan
When I first read the title to this thread, I assumed Toyota was trying to secure a stable supply for Tony's medication. Tom
i have never seen toyota say that... it is just that currently nimh was more proven and more price competitive. on the other hand, GM, Nissan and other pretenders to the throne claim they will produce billion hybrids soon enough, yet they outsource the most important thing - batteries.
That was my understanding also. What I think Toyota also said was that the current Li technology was not ready yet. They were working with others to develop an improved Li-ion battery that will make the capacity of the Li battery even higher than it is now. My impression was that they would move to the higher capacity Li-ion technology in order to drive the battery cost down and make it more competitive with NiMH technology in hybrids. The lower cost would come from the technology improvements and not necessarily just the higher volume. My bet is that the increased volume for new, raw Li production would coincide with the implementation into an improved cathode structure in the Li battery system.
